Something in Common
by ayane04
Summary: RyoSaku. The tennis prodigy has determined to be mute for the rest of the years it takes until he can get rid of it at last. Unbeknownst to him, a certain pig-tailed girl has exactly the same problem..


A/N ayane is back ;)

A/N ayane is back ;)

Her mood: feeling incredibly corny and stupid

RyoSaku is most long-standing couple that I've always been and always will squeal about. The manga didn't end quite as how I wanted it to be –nods from all the dedicated RyoSaku fans- but that's kind of why fanfiction is here… at least that's my opinion I am extremely bored, it's summer hols and I've got like, nothing to do. So please don't blame me if this fic stinks of randomness or cliché-ness or whatever.

**Standard disclaimer applies.**

Enjoy.

((00-00))

Terminator teeth.

It was the first thing that popped into Ryuzaki Sakuno's head as she looked somewhat glumly at herself in the mirror. Not the first time in her whole braided-hair life (yes, she'd had cute little flying pigtails ever since she could remember entering in this big, wide world), Sakuno dreaded going to school.

It wasn't the same as all the other common reasons of skiving, like you were too lazy to get up, or you just didn't feel like it ('cause let's face it, there's a new movie out and it just had to be ten billion times better than stuck in the desk counting the number of times the teacher dropped her whiteboard marker).

Either way, it wasn't the answer to Sakuno's apparent dreading of school.

Sakuno had always been reasonably satisfied with her appearance.

Until _now._

Her chances of a certain tennis prodigy of ever asking her out had just washed down the drain.

Not that she was, well hoping. Or was she? Sakuno wasn't sure. Considering the fact they were sort of supposedly acquaintances, she was well aware that Ryoma remained mysteriously oblivious to her… um, approaches to become, well, more than a friend.

She tugged at those hateful wires, not caring for moment that it was unhygienic to place her hands in her mouth. How she wanted to rip them out.

Argh. _Argh._

-x-x-

"Ohayo gozaimasu, buchou."

The full tennis club gathered on the court in the usual lines they did in morning practice.

While Ryuzaki-sensei proceeded to organize the practice activities, the vice-captain searched for the usual mop of messy dark green hair. Oishi wasn't exactly surprised when he couldn't find it. The boy probably got caught up on something, he mused.

Sure enough, the short tennis prodigy came walking in through the court gates, his cap on, successfully obscuring his expression.

"Echizen!" Tezuka said sternly. "Why are you late?"

Ryoma shrugged nonchalantly. "Hn."

Tezuka remained unfazed. A normal buchou would have been slightly nerved by the impertinence of a freshman to his senpai, but Tezuka knew he wasn't being rude on purpose. He just didn't feel like explaining. He wouldn't dare admit this to anyone, but he quite understood how Ryoma liked his privacy and giving rather insufficient answers.

"10 laps around the court." Ryoma put down his racket on the bench and started running.

-

Ten laps was a decent warm-up for Ryoma. He took off his Seigaku regular jacket. He wasn't normally this rude to his buchou; in fact, he was never late for practice. The point was, the less he spoke, the better it was for him. It irritated him very much, that he couldn't just smash it into pieces, but then he would be smashing his own face. He couldn't let other people see.

If Eiji or Momo even saw a glimpse of it, he was in trouble. They'd make fun of him to no end, and he would have to suffer being their teasing subject for a couple of weeks at least. Even if eventually, maybe in the next lifetime, he'd have gotten rid of them at last, the both of them would still make sure he wouldn't forget that he had –

"Oi Echizen!"

He turned around. Momo was waving at him in the adjacent court, his poor opponent on the court floor, panting and shaking his head repeatedly.

"Let's have a short match!"

Ryoma simply walked over to his court.

"Heh, Echizen, you were late today!" He snickered. "So, what were you doing?"

Ryoma didn't reply. "Oi Oi Ochibi!" Eiji's red head popped out of nowhere; he'd most likely finished his practice match.

Wiping some of his sweat of his brow, he turned to his other senpai with a somewhat disgruntled look on his face. He didn't know how he was going to speak without showing _that_.

When Ryoma still didn't reply, Eiji shot Momo a curious look. "Oi ochibi, what's wrong? Cat got your tongue? You're being reaaaaaally quiet!!"

Before he could press on further about Ryoma's silence, an ominous-looking old baba was glaring daggers at the poor redhead. "Kikumaru! Didn't I tell you to do sit-ups after you finished your match?" Ryuzaki-sensei hissed dangerously.

Eiji disappeared in front of Ryoma's face before you could say 'ochibi'.

-x-x-

"Hey, did you notice that the most talkative, klutzy girl in our class was so quiet today?"

"Yeah, I know. She's usually babbling all over the place, apologizing for everything!"

"Cat got her tongue?"

"God knows."

Sakuno flushed. She'd refrained from talking as much as she possibly could today. She just hoped she could do that till the glorious time came when she could finally take them off.

Just as she was turning round the corridor, she smacked right into someone she least wanted to see. The two fell onto the floor. Sakuno opened her mouth instinctively to apologize, but remembered just in time to keep it closed.

In a desperate frenzy to say sorry, she did the gesture instead. Ryoma raised his eyebrows slightly at her. Then Sakuno caught sight of his stained Seigaku shirt and realized that she'd made him spill his Ponta.

Still keeping her lips tightly closed, she reached out and grabbed his hand. Making sure he couldn't see his face, Sakuno said as clearly as she could, although very nervous, "I-I'll buy you another one, Ryoma-kun."

At first Ryoma was tempted to object, but he was being dragged along anyway, so he didn't bother.

-x-x-

They sat leaning on the diagonal squared fence on the roof, each sipping their own Ponta. Both were careful to keep their distance.

Sakuno occasionally stole glances at her crush, not knowing what to do. She couldn't really keep quiet, but this was the biggest challenge; she can't let him know.

A flash or glint of metal caught her eye when she was stealing glances. She blinked, this time, staring straight at Ryoma, who hadn't noticed yet that she was staring.

Suddenly, she broke into a wide smile.

Then a laugh.

Ryoma turned to look at her questioningly. He found himself focusing on her mouth. His eyes widened slightly.

-

-

Sakuno continued to giggle. "Ryoma-kun, you've got yellow braces!"

There was silence as Ryoma slipped his cap on and he stood up.

"…So do you."

Smirking to himself, he walked away.

Sakuno touched her braces, and couldn't keep the smile in. Something they had in common.

((00-00))

A/N Thanks for reading Pretty bad ending huh? (Cause I couldn't really think of how to end it ) Review?


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